RTS: Dune/C&C/Starcraft and Age of Empires were a few titles through the years that got me into the RTS genre.

FPS: DOOM, Quake,CoD got me into the FPS genre more and more over the years.

Turn based RPG: Final Fantasy, Pokemon, XCOM and Disgaea got me into the turn based RPG's, these days I'm not that much into them though besides Pokemon and XCOM.

RPG: Elder Scrolls, Diablo, Baldur's Gate, Deus Ex, Titan Quest to name a few.

Racing: Burnout got me into Racing games, but these days there isn't much that interests me for that genre.

Adventure: Games like Zelda, Monkey Island and Myst were some of the few that started me off with the adventure genre.

Red Faction 2 introduced me to first person shooters. Fallout 3 and Mass Effect 2 introduced me to Western RPGs.

Rhythm Heaven introduced me to rhythm games. Still remains my favorite in the genre.

There's really only one game that did that for me in 35+ years I'v been gaming.

I was not a big fan of RPGs back in early 80s, though few of my friends swore by them...then I saw Dungeon Master on Amiga back in '87 and that changed my mind for good.

Ace Attorney isn't a visual novel, it's an adventure.

Chrono Trigger made me a fan of J-RPG's, which are the kind of games that I play the most by far.